Born in Rikuzen Takata of Iwate Prefecture, Naoya Hatakeyama has gained global acclaim for his series that consistently take on urban issues including “LIME WORKS”, taken of limestone mines, and “BLAST”, capturing the moment of mine blasts, among others.

Since he and his family experienced the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, he began to photograph his home town, intensively. He has continued to photograph that landscape, from the first traces of disaster to stages of recovery, and even today. For the Tokyo Biennale, the contact prints of these powerful images will be displayed. Through direct transferrence of film onto photographic paper, these contact prints reveal all at once the shots as seen by Hatakeyama when he pressed the shutter. What will we see in these unselected group of photos?

Installation view of "Naoya Hatakeyama Photography Exhibition: Cloven Landscape,”
Sendai Mediatheque, Miyagi, 2016. Photo by Naoya Hatakeyama

“